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How to Install Roof Jacks?

If you are attempting to remodel your roof, there are some pointers to keep at the back of your mind. First and foremost,

do not forget to install roof jacks. Simply speaking, these are steel anchors which hook onto your roof and hold the planks of wood for you to tread your feet on. Installing these is not as simple as it sounds and it needs a certain amount of expertise to do so. If you are careful about it, it could even lead to your roof getting damaged good and proper.

Before beginning this work, ensure that the roof is totally stable. Keep a ladder next to the side of the roof and go up slowly. The first roof jack is usually placed on the fourth or the fifth level of the row of shingles. Be sure that the diagonal holes on the jack are at the top part of the shingle in question. Make it a point to drive in a nail in each and every slot which comes along the way. Also, ensure that you hit on it hard enough and enough number of times for it to come at the level with the metallic portion of the jack. After this, drive in a nail at the bottom portion of the jack so that it gets tightly secured from both sides. After this is done, you can rest easy that the first one has been installed correctly.

Keep on placing the jacks at secure areas around and about on the roof. The jacks should be evenly spaced about – which is at a distance of about two feet from each other and also from the edge of the roof. Do not space them more apart from each other than this to make the support system work.

After putting a few jacks on the roof, you can begin work with the wooden boards. If required, at the end you can place a few more roof jacks to ensure adequate support or may even remove some of them if the case so requires. Once the roofing is totally done, you can take out the jacks by hammering them in an upward direction till they come free from the nails which were supporting them. The roof jacks, ideally speaking, should slide out. The nails can be hidden from the shingles and it is not all that necessary to remove these as well.

Be careful while working with roof jacks

During the entire process, be very careful that the hammer does not hit your fingers or any other part of your hand. Injuries can happen if you do your work in a hasty or wish to be too quick about it. Also, the ladder you use for this purpose should be very hardy so that it does not break or bend while you are working on it. Like mentioned above, this work may sound simple but is not as easy as it may seem. Thus, take your time over it and do not hurry, especially if you are a novice in the job.